Journalist Helle Lyng, at the centre of a row with Indian diplomats during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Norway, has denied that she walked out of a press conference where an Indian foreign ministry official delivered a long reply to her question on alleged human right violations.Helle Lyng replied to a thread on X in which there was a video of her confronting Ministry of External Affairs' Secretary (West) Sibi George with her questions about human rights. (Photo: FB/@helle.l.svendsen)“I just needed a cup of water,” she said pointedly.She was replying to a thread on X in which there was a video of her confronting Ministry of External Affairs' Secretary (West) Sibi George with her questions.On that thread a user wrote: “Why did [Helle Lyng] leave? Doesn't know a [expletive] about India and wants to question an IFS officer. She actually wants to be a podcaster, for that she needs followers.”That's when she clarified that she had not walked out. The user (@GaneshMhz) then replied with a reference to human right activist Great Thunberg: “That's a reasonable execuse. Water can calm you down little bit. You act like Greta.”Responds to multiple X posts on ‘walkout’Another user (@Albela_Yogi) posted, “The Norwegian press ask questions and then walkout to the cafe or loo, without caring to listen to the response. With such toxic sense of entitlement, no wonder theirs is the supposedly number one spot on the World Press Freedom Index.”To this handle, she replied: “We had been talking for a while and he did not address human rights violation although I asked multiple times to be more specific.”To a comment that the “MEA won this round”, and that “walking out is not journalism but shows an angry activism”, Helle Lyng wrote: “I was just getting water and came back… thank you for your perspective.”She explained in another reply: “We had been talking for a while and he did not address human rights violation although I asked multiple times to be more specific.”Asked PM Modi to take questionsThe row began after she objected to the lack of a proper press conference with a question-answer session during PM Modi's joint press briefing with his Norwegian counterpart Jonas Gahr Støre on Monday.Helle Lyng shared on X a video of PM Modi walking out of the joint statement venue and said in the caption that PM Modi did not take her question.“I was not expecting him to,” she said in the post, sharing the video in which a woman, apparently Lyng, can be heard saying: "Why don't you take some questions from the freest press in the world?”She further wrote on X: “Norway has the number one spot on the World Press Freedom Index, India is at 157th, competing with Palestine, Emirates & Cuba. It is our job to question the powers we cooperate with."At a later briefing by the Indian ministry, where journalists pressed officials on PM not taking questions, the MEA's Sibi George engaged in a tense exchange with her.She asked about “why we should trust you” over alleged human rights violation and lack of press freedom in India.She also asked if the prime minister "will start takin g critical questions from the Indian press."In response, MEA Secretary (West) Sibi George gave a lowdown of "what India is".Let me give a background to what India is… What is a country? A country today has four elements. One, population, two government, third sovereignty, and fourth territory. So, that is what makes a country a country. And we are proud... That we are a civilisational country of 5,000 years old. Continuous civilisation, continuous civilisation. contributed immensely to the world,"While listing what all originated from India, George could be seen asking someone to let him answer the question without interruption. “Please don't interrupt me,” a visibly irate George said, as his response spanned several minutes.Also on X, BJP IT Cell chief Amit Malviya claimed. “The Norwegian Prime Minister also didn’t take any questions at the joint press briefing of the two leaders.”Helle Lyng replied to this too: "He did, but only to Norwegian press at first. He met the Indian press later that day.Malviya, in his post, also said Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi, who taunted the PM about the row, and his “lunatic Congress ecosystem” were “crowing over a delinquent journalist’s incoherent rant”.The Congress has pointed out that Modi as PM has never addressed a press conference in his tenure of 12 years and counting.